Short-Term Synaptic Plasticity and Adaptation Contribute to the Coding of Timing and Intensity Information

In birds, the cochlear nucleus angularis (NA) is an obligatory relay for intensity processing, and the nucleus magnocellularis (NM) serves the same function for temporal information. Our recent experimental and modeling studies have shown that short-term synaptic plasticity is a major player in this division into parallel pathways. Short-term synaptic plasticity, by dynamically modulating synaptic strength, filters information contained in the firing patterns.